The modern inhabitant of a megalopolis under 45 years of age receives more than 85 notifications in messengers and about 100 more work letters by email every day.
We were trying to catch up and become a little more productive – now we regularly work in “I need a vacation again” mode, joining the army of people with emotional burnout, change jobs every 6-18 months, and contribute to the growing popularity of retreats, yoga tours and appointments with a psychologist.
So how do you escape information overload? And how do you recover if you feel tired?
These seven tips will help reduce stress and save from information fatigue syndrome.
1. Close gestalts
Don’t accumulate debts and promises. Finish the things you promised yourself and others. These sorts of “hang-ups” drain your energy by being constantly present in your subconscious mind. Do all the things you’ve wanted to do for a long time. Clean house. Put your to-do sheets in order.
2. Use the sticker effect
Don’t keep unnecessary things in your head – write down new ideas, thoughts, and tasks in a notebook, post-it notes, or Google Keep. It is scientifically proved that such a ritual relieves anxiety – so you stop keeping a lot of facts in your head at the same time and do not overload the background mode of the brain.
3. Allow yourself small joys
If you feel like taking a break and doing something nice for yourself, feel free to do it. These are the things that make you feel good, but they’re the best way to make up for all your energy and fatigue. Combine your joys with closing gestalts, do something you’ve wanted to do for a long time, and you’ll have a burst of positive energy.
4. Use the Stop rule
The German carmaker Daimler is very concerned about its employees and encourages them not to read their emails while on vacation. To do this, the company introduced a new “stop rule.” It is effortless; if an employee is on vacation and you send him an email, you will get a reply that he is on vacation, your email is deleted, and he will never read it. You are immediately offered two options – to write this email again after a specific date (the end of the vacation) or to contact another employee who replaces his colleague during his break.
5. It’s time for a new communication ethic – don’t be ashamed of it
Our world is changing, the flow of tasks is growing, and our approaches to concentration and planning our time are also changing. It’s time to accept the fact that in today’s world, calling someone on the cell phone and expecting them to respond immediately has long been a sign of bad form.
It’s okay to answer calls and messages exactly when it’s convenient for you to do so.
Yes, there should be an emergency communication channel (call or SMS), but for other non-emergency matters, don’t expect others to answer you immediately. This will allow you to schedule time in your calendar to deal with messages, not be distracted by micro-tasks and “quick” answers. But most importantly, don’t keep your brain’s background mode on all the time, which means it will add focus and concentration to your work.
6. Practice meditation
Allow yourself to fall into a state where you can think of nothing. Try the meditation of scanning your body with your eyes closed. You will feel better when you learn to listen to your feelings and unplug from your train of thought. Tune in to a wave of calm.
Be prepared for the first few meditations to be challenging for you. You are likely to be distracted, and you will barely be able to sit still for a couple of minutes.
With regular practice, your concentration skill will improve dramatically, and you will begin to enjoy the results immensely.
7. Get enough sleep!
Sleep is one of the greatest stress fighters for our bodies. While we sleep, our brain recovers refine thoughts and structures information. Our working memory is cleared and rebooted at night, but you need to give your body enough time to repair itself for this to happen regularly.
About the author
Steve O’Neil is a writer and translator with a master’s degree in marketing. He has a passion for learning to understand how things work and how events proceed. He also expertise in various fields, including social media marketing, lifestyle, and data analytics. Now, he is a regular editor and essay writer who thinks that paperhelp a good service to help students with their college papers.
